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Home > My Playlist... My Muse for the next chapter...

My Playlist... My Muse for the next chapter...

Submitted by IAmHerEmma on Tue, 2025/11/25 - 3:28am

Author: 

  • IAmHerEmma

Blog About: 

  • Authors / Stories / Books / Writing
  • Music / Songs / Singers

Hey everyone,

When you first sit down with a new idea in your head, what do you lean on to get started? For some people, it might be a mood, a memory, or even a single image. For some people, it could be something visual, like something they saw in real life, maybe a movie, or even something they heard.  I am curious what others use as that first spark when they begin turning an idea into an actual story.

For me, it has always been music. I like listening to songs from different genres, and sometimes a line of lyrics or even just the way a track builds and shifts gives me a kick, a feeling I want to chase. That feeling often turns into a scene or a mood in my head, and from there I start thinking about how I can shape it into a story. Or sometimes I already have the story in my head, and a song helps me build it all out.

I was heavily inspired by Alessia Cara while working on The Girl I Undressed. Her songs "Scars to Your Beautiful" and "I'm Yours" from her album Know-It-All gave me a lot of inspiration. The lyrics in those tracks have always hit me hard and helped me set the tone for some parts of the story.

Just when I thought I had a few things for the follow-up to The Girl I Undressed figured out, I hit a bit of a wall. I decided to go back to my playlist of songs for inspiration, and that is when I finally found the song that would be my muse.

Henry Lau - Radio (MV)

I am sorry, I do not know how to post a YouTube video directly here, so I have just linked it instead. The song is "Radio" by Henry Lau from his EP titled Journey. I find it to be a powerful track, with strong lyrics and a great music video, which helped me realise the kind of journey I want to write about. The song, the visuals in the music video, and my own interpretation feel like different versions of a similar journey, something I can look at through a slightly different lens as I work on the new path Ashley and James/Emma will take.

While the song is not entirely in English and is mostly in Korean, I still encourage you to listen to it by watching the music video and turning on the lyric translations in the closed captions. It might give you a small hint of the direction I will be taking. :)

Love,
Emma

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